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MONITORING (SW) \u2013 At least three senior Taliban figures have confirmed to the NBC News the group has called fighters for front-line duty amid growing concerns in their ranks that\u00a0the Biden administration\u00a0will not withdraw foreign troops by an agreed May deadline.<\/p>\n
A Taliban commander in Helmand province said there were \u201cmultiple issues\u201d that the movement\u2019s leadership needed to address, including a \u201cdeadlock\u201d in the peace talks with the Afghan government and doubts about the future raised by the new administration in Washington.<\/p>\n
Like other insurgents cited in this article, the commander spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The comments come amid growing warnings about escalating violence from local and foreign officials and experts, with President Joe Biden \u2014 who assumed office just months before a deadline to withdraw all foreign troops \u2014 weighing what to do next in America\u2019s longest war.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan report\u00a0released Wednesday\u00a0warned\u00a0that withdrawing troops irresponsibly would likely lead to a \u201cnew civil war\u201d in Afghanistan and would allow terrorist groups to re-emerge empowered.<\/p>\n
According to the report, a Taliban political leader in Doha, Qatar, said the group\u2019s plan was to try and capture strategically important provinces in case talks with the Afghan government failed, and Biden kept troops in the country beyond May \u2014 the withdrawal date\u00a0agreed to by the Taliban and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
He said commanders of \u201cimportant\u201d districts had been recalled to their positions.<\/p>\n
The militants have misled the media in the past and it remains unclear to what extent the Taliban are willing to act on their rhetoric, but the threat of violence is also echoed in a recent public statement, the report added.<\/p>\n